Hello WhiteBlaze forum. Nice to meet you folks.
My wife and I are headed to visit my old friend in Virginia, and have settled on an itinerary that includes few nights of camping in the Michaux State Forest as a stopover on the way down from Connecticut.
I thought I'd post here for advice from anyone familiar with the AT through there or nearby parks.
Our family: me, an experienced hiker, hiked the Olympic Range solo, and have done long distance hitchhiking trips with a little frameless jansport daypack and Eureka Solitaire on several different continents. my wife, who grew up in Alaska and overnighted at Wonder Lake with me next to Denali on a visit there, prefers car camping and festivals to roughing it. My Sons, ages 3 and 5-- definitely outdoors types who've grown up without a TV in the house, and are amenable to most things outdoors. Music Festival camping experience only, but a good amount of walking and hiking experience.
We have a few hours to hike in to set up a site, a day to enjoy the forest, and should get out at least by mid afternoon after our second night in.
Our equipment: We'll have bikes in the van for use on other parts of the trip, but could easily use them for accessing camping from any road (paved/gravel/or dirt) in the forest. Our tent choices are a huge North Face 6 person 30 Lb Treailhead 6 family camping palace, a good 7 Lb. Eureka Aspen 3 man, and a Shangri-La 4+ that I just found for cheap. Packs, sleeping bags and clothing for all, and either an ultra light cooking set up or a big old Brunton two burner.
So if anyone Familiar with the area maybe knows of an awesome place to set up car camping style that's near either good biking or good hiking, that would make my wife pretty happy. Otherwise, I'd love some advice on heading in with our 3 man and my new tarp for some hiking that's more along the lines of what this board is about.